She walks about the drawing-room, touching the surfaces with her fingertips – the glass of a cabinet door, the edge of a table-top, the writing-desk beneath the portrait of the unknown Gault, a shepherd’s head. Again there is the scent on her mother’s handkerchief; again her father calls her lady.
She settles in her chair by the window, to gaze out at the dusky blue of the hydrangeas. The avenue has gone shadowy, the out line of its trees stark against the sky. The rooks come down to scrabble in the grass as every evening at this time they do, her companions while she watches the fading of the day.
THE BEGINNING
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First published by Viking 2002
Published in Penguin Books 2003
Copyright © William Trevor, 2002
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover image © Herbert List/Magnum Photos
ISBN: 978-0-141-97479-8